Cruising my 1995 Catalina 42 MK II sailboat with my cat XO, the good, the bad, and the ugly of the open ocean world cruising life.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Vietnam Story

Yesterday Ed and I were driving around doing errands and the conversation changed to bizarre experiences. Ed related a story about a particular firefight in Vietnam. Ed was out on a patrol when his unit came under fire. He found a destroyed tank and got behind it for cover. Machine gun fire was all around but was unable to hit him behind the tank. As he was sitting with his back to the tank he noticed that there was a guy lying on the ground about 10 yards away taking Ed's picture. So in the middle of the firefight they have this conversation:

"Are you taking my picture?' "Yes" "Why?" "I am a freelance photographer." "So you get paid to take my picture?" "Maybe. I take pictures, send them to Saigon. If they use the picture they pay me." "I am here because I have to be. You are crazier than me." Crawls off to find another photo opportunity...